Kukla's Korner Hockey

What the NHL should be doing is naming the divisions or conferences (seven teams in the West and Central geographic areas and eight in the East) are Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe and either Mario Lemieux or Rocket Richard. Gretzky, Orr and Howe are the three greatest players with Lemieux arguably fourth and Richard has the scoring (most goals in a season) named after the storied Montreal winger.

Gretzky is the easiest fit for the grouping with Edmonton. He has a statue outside the rink here, he played in LA and coached in Phoenix.

Lemieux, the greatest Penguin, could head up the division with the New York area teams although the bitter rivals in Philly might not like being in a division named Lemieux.

Boston and Detroit are in the same division so Orr and Howe would have to fight it out there, I suppose. Richard was the ultimate Montreal player too so that’s three Hall of Famers and one division. I say go with Orr in division C, which brings us to B. Howe was never a Blackhawks but unless we suddenly come up with Hull for that one because Bobby played in Chicago and his boy Brett in St. Louis and Dallas, this one goes to Howe.

Surely the NHL can honour its greatest players as they went overboard with builders names years back.

Will they? I have my doubts–they could easily go with Pacific and Central, Atlantic and Can-East– but maybe the staid NHL will surprise me.

The NHL will stick to the geographic names. Gary’s tenure has been geared to making the sport not so hard to follow for those who don’t know the game. I’m almost surprised he hasn’t pushed for a 4th period to make hockey more like football and basketball.

How in the hell can you name a Division Howe and it NOT have Detroit in it?

Fauxing Gary…

Bah. EP isn’t trolling. I wouldn’t doubt Mario may have a bit more finesse to his game than Howe, but to match both up in their prime? Howe would probably skate through Mario more than Mario skating around Howe.

Posted by
mrfluffy
from A wide spot on I-90 in Montana on 07/18/13 at 09:51 AM ET

Posted by Evilpens on 07/18/13 at 10:10 AM ET

C’mon EP, you know that comparing players from different eras is a silly waste of time.

I can’t go off first hand knowledge of Howe and Orr because I wasn’t alive or old enough to follow the game. I’ve lived through Gretzky and Mario and can safely conclude that they are the two most dominant offensive players in my time.

That said, my conversations with folks that have seen the game change much longer than I, historical accounts like the Legends of Hockey series, and statistical analysis of the state of the game within eras (ie: 6 teams, evolution of defense goal-tending,, etc) lead me to the that Howe and Orr were more dominant players in their respective eras.

To keep things simple, I hope they go back to the conference and division naming conventions from 74-93.

sorry Gordie Howe is linked with Hockey forever But he wasn’t a better player than Mario

Posted by Evilpens on 07/18/13 at 10:10 AM ET

They’re both power forwards with completely different skill sets to become the game’s greatest players thus proving either way wins.

Posted by
SYF
from the C7.R, flyin' low and feelin' mean on 07/18/13 at 12:02 PM ET

I just don’t really want my division named after an opposing team’s owner. Can you imagine the Flyers hosting a Lemieux division championship banner?

Why not name divisions after players posthumously so we don’t have to worry about offending the living or having a conflict of interest. I’m sure there are at least four players or coaches that would qualify.